Ammon Lost Another Tooth

Ammon lost his second tooth last week! He really lost it. Earlier that day at the park he had shown Emily how loose it was then when we came home for lunch he realized it was gone. He was eating a banana and then went to talk to Lily and when he put his finger in his mouth to wiggle his tooth, it was gone! We looked for it but never found it. Maybe he swallowed it? He was worried that the tooth fairy wasn't going to come, so he wrote her a note that said, "I lost my tooth. Ammon." Thank goodness she still came. He was pretty excited although he isn't really certain the tooth fairy exists. He asked me if I was the tooth fairy and I told him I'd let him decide what he thought about it. We rented a book from the library recently about the tooth fairy. It was a cute story, I'd recommend it if your kids are questioning the tooth fairy's existence, but not if they do believe because then they will start to question it. It is called, "Dad, Are You The Tooth Fairy?" by Jason Alexander, Ron Spears Maybe read it on your own first and decide what you think. I really enjoyed and the illustrations are beautiful.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Yeah, she is one! We had a fun day. We made her a birthday cake (carrot cake) with ducks swimming in a pond. It turned out really cute. Ammon and Lily had a lot of fun frosting it. We went swimming at a neighbors house in the afternoon. Anna is a little fish, she loves the water! They have some fake ducks in their pool and of course Anna quacked at them most of the time we were there. She is hilarious when she sees one. Then I took her to get her picture taken, for the first time, I am a slacker. She thought it was so cool that she was the center of attention. She kept smiling at the lady and was thrilled that we were all making a big fuss over her. It was so cute watching her. Then we came home for dinner and Uncle Bob and Aunt Margene came over for cake, ice cream and presents. Anna wasn't sure what to do about the candles, but she did think it was neat. She cried when we gave her her cake and wouldn't eat it, she was super tired though. When I sat down with my cake I gave her some ice cream and put her in her high chair next to me and she ate some of the ice cream and kept playing with the cake. No crying that time, she thought it was fun. She was covered in green frosting! I made cherry trees for the cake by covering suckers with green frosting and pink sprinkles. Anna had a sucker, but she kept chewing on the stick, not the sucker. It was really cute. When she finally figured out the sucker end, she was super excited. Birthdays = Lots of sugar.

We got Anna the game Lucky Ducks because I couldn't find ducks any where else for her cake, and she is really excited about ducks. She thinks the game is pretty fun. She carries the ducks around and quacks with them. We also got her a little doll and best of all a little push around buggy. It was a hit! She was really excited about it and kept trying to climb in while Adam was putting the buckle in the seat. She will sit in that all day long. Ammon and Lily love to push her around in it and we have already had to take away their privilege to do so because she has nearly tipped over a few times. They push her around like they are in a race. It is hilarious because Adam and I tell them to slow down and Anna just laughs and bounces up and down in the seat loving every minute of it. It's funny because it seems like everything I don't want them doing with her, because I am afraid she may get hurt, she seems to absolutely love!

She got a card with money from Grandma and Grandpa Gillies and from Bob and Margene. After she opened those, Lily ran upstairs and was there for awhile. She finally came down and gave Anna the card she had already opened from Bob and Margene, but Lily had drawn her a cute picture in it and put some of her money it for Anna. How sweet is that?! Lily is so awesome. She is a great sister and she loves Anna tons.

It was a fun day. Anna was exhausted. Poor, tired little girl. She played hard all day, missed most of her nap time, but was still happy. She is such a sweet little thing. It was great to celebrate her special day! Ammon and Lily have already had us light her candles several times again, just so they can sing happy birthday to her and blow them out! They love birthdays and so do we!

Anna is 1!

Wow! I can't believe my sweet little baby is already one! Time has gone so fast. Today we are going to play, play, play! I will post pictures of Anna with her birthday cake and presents later. She is the sweetest baby and I love her and her chubby, chubby cheeks! She is a happy girl and is loved by all of us. Ammon loves to scare her and she thinks it is hilarious. Lily loves to chase her and act like a dog and Anna laughs and laughs. Mommy loves to snuggle her and kiss her cheeks and daddy loves to make her laugh by tickling her. Anna is walking all over the place, is learning how to get down the stairs, off the couch, and off beds, has learned how to open the toilet lid, yuck!, loves swimming and bath time, is super excited about ducks, and animals, quacks all the time, loves watermelon, cottage cheese, and cheese, loves to be outside, loves playing with tennis balls, puts everything in her mouth, has the cutest little laugh and the sweetest smile. She is learning so many words, we are still working on signs, enjoys playing with Lily when she plays with her dollhouse, loves baby dolls, especially the one that laughs, and of course, she loves attention. Happy birthday Anna! We love you!

Boating at Lake Mead

On Saturday we went boating at Lake Mead with Peterson's and we had an absolute blast! They stopped to play with us on their way home form Powell. We were on the lake for 12 hours and we were so exhuasted. It was so awesome! Anna loved the water. She would get upset when we put her back in the boat. She was so happy to splash and play in the water. She is a little fish. She also enjoyed being on the boat and watching the water splash up on the sides as we would ride. She wasn't crazy about the life jacket, but I was amazed at how good she did. Ammon was a brave little boy and got on the tube a few times with his cousins. He laughed and laughed he thought it was great. Lily didn't want to ride on the tube, but she did want to wakeboard with daddy. She did it two different times. After the first time she kept asking when it would be her turn again. She was a brave little girl. It is hard to see her on the video, but if you look close you can see her with her arms locked around Adam's legs. I had a blast watching the kids have fun and also watching Adam. He loves wakeboarding but we don't get to go very often. It is nice to see him have some fun. It was a perfect day. Ammon and Lily really loved being with their cousins, and being on the boat. They had fun swimming in the lake all day, sipping on capri suns, eating Oreos, and being crazy and silly. We are so glad the Peterson's were willing to share their time and their brand new boat with us. Thanks so much you guys! We love you!

A fun slideshow

It is so fun taking pictures of kids, even when they don't cooperate! I thought these were so cute I had to share them. Enjoy!

Playdough Fun!

Ammon got some of the new Crayola Model Magic for his birthday from his grandma. Today we had fun making a castle with the model magic and Lily made a birthday cake and cupcake for her puppy with the regular playdough, from her birthday, and fruity pebbles sprinkled on top. She is all about the happy bright colors. They wanted me to take pictures of their projects so their grandmas could see them. So here you go Grandma Christy and Grandma Margie. Thanks!

What is easier?

As you can tell, I keep switching things around. Is it easier for you to read when the posts are black or when they were lighter?

Uncle Bobby's Wedding

Please read this!
http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Bobbys-Wedding-Sarah-Brannen/dp/0399247122

I tried to put an image of the book here but it is copyrighted and won't work, so just follow the link to see the cover.

Wow! I never thought I would come to the day when I would be reading a book like this to my children. We checked this out a few weeks ago and I sat down to read it that night with Lily while Ammon was showering. It starts out cute. It is a story of mice. The niece loves her uncle and is sad when he announces he will be marrying Jamie because she fears she will lose her uncle. You get about halfway through the story before you realize that Jamie is not a girl mouse. Yes, you heard me correctly! The niece is now going to get two uncles! We stopped reading right there. I flipped through the pages and sure enough at the end it shows them holding hands and has two boy mice on the top of the cake! Disgusting! OK, I was seriously outraged and Lily and I had a big old chat right there about who girls marry and who boys marry and what Heavenly Father thinks about it. I told Lily it was a very bad book and she got a terrified look on her face like she was in trouble. I told her it wasn't her fault. Who would have thought that you would find an illustrated children's book from the children's section of the library about homosexuality! When I saw the cover I thought it was the niece, her uncle and her father. Nope! It's Uncle Bobby, Uncle Jamie, and the niece! So, the next day we took it back and I talked with the lady in charge of the children's collection. I filled out a form for request for reconsideration of library materials. I asked them to remove the book from the library. I just got a letter Friday afternoon that told me they will not remove it. In a nutshell they said that the library's goal is to provide materials that support the many different views of the community. They also said that it is my responsibility to make sure that the materials I pick out are appropriate. Well, I do agree, but how am I to know what is in the book with out reading the whole thing? Even the summary for this book says nothing about it being two male mice. I flipped through the book before we got it, but didn't look at all the pictures. Besides, Jamie can be a boy or girl name and in the story Jamie is dressed in purple. The author purposely picked this so that you don't understand until halfway through the book what it is that you are reading! How deceitful! Sorry, I am kind of rambling on. Anyway, I called the lady yesterday in charge of all the library collection materials to let her know I was not pleased with their decision. I asked her if they could at least tag the book as "homosexual content" or place it in a different area of the children's section. She said they can't because then they would have to label all books by their content. I understand, but I still disagree. I was on the phone for at least half an hour with her. Really it was a waste of my breath because they are firm in their decision. I don't feel like it was a total waste though, because I was happy to do my part in making my voice heard in my community. It's too bad the Libraries are all so liberal. I feel like I had to at least try and let them know I disagree with it being there. The lady was very kind and said she appreciated my concern and was glad that I hold the values I do. I looked up some stuff online about it, I've included the link so you can check it out. It is basically what they said in my letter and on the phone to me (if you are bored and have time and are curious to know how my conversation went). Apparently this book is raising some issues and I think it will continue to. I just thought I'd send a warning out so that if you see this book in your library you won't make the mistake of checking it out and reading it to your kids! http://jaslarue.blogspot.com/2008/07/uncle-bobbys-wedding.html

The Funny things Lily says...

Ok, Lily is hilarious. She is always saying and doing the funniest and cutest things. I thought I should write some down before I forget them.

Ammon was justing picking on Lily and I asked him to stop and he didn't so Lily knoocked him off the couch with her feet. Of course he started to cry, but I didn't feel sorry for him, he wasn't hurt, just sad. I said, "Ammon, I told you she was going to pay you back when she got bigger." Then Lily said, laughing, "Yea, I'm gonna run him through his money!" What she meant was, I'm giving him a run for his money. The other day they were both picking on Anna and Adam said, "When she gets bigger she is going to give you a run for your money." Ammon got a really scared look on his face and said, "Mom, what does that mean?" I said, "Well, it means she is going to pay you guys back for all the mean things you've done to her." He was worried that she was literally going to get his money somehow. Too funny. Well apparently Lily caught right on to that phrase and used it in her way today. I thought it was classic!

Lily picked this outfit out all by herself last week for church. She was so proud of herself that she wanted me to take her picture. I do have to say she is pretty darn cute!

Awhile ago she asked me, "Mom, what is lacteria?"

Me, "lacteria?"

Lily, "Yes, lacteria."

Me, "Well, I don't know, where did you hear it?"

Lily, "On Curious George in the song."

Me, "Lily, I don't think they say lacteria in the Curious George song."

Lily, "Yes they do mom, listen", then she sang me the song and I paid attention to the song that afternoon when Curious George came on.

Sure enough, it does sound like lacteria when they say "Like Curious, Like Curious, Curious George." You'll have to listen to it and let me know if you think you could've heard lacteria in there.

The other day I was having Lily do her chores and while she was cleaning up she said, "Mom, I wish we had handy helpers (like the ones on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and they could do everything for me." That would be nice! Wait, but then we wouldn't have the satisfaction of working for ourselves and seeing a job completed and well done. Still it was a cute idea!

Lily has a habit of playing in the bathroom sink. She'll plug the drain and fill the sink with water and then put in tupperware dishes, toys, toothbrushes, stuffed animals (sometimes she gives them baths), or just lots and lots of bubbles. Often there is water all over the floor too. Whenever I can't find her, I usually just have to check the bathroom and sure enough there she is. Well, the other day she tried giving Ammon's barking, walking, flipping dog a bath. Well, now he just sits. Ammon isn't too happy about it, but I had to remind him of the toys of Lily's that he has broken.

The other funny thing is she had this dish and some tinker toys in there and then she brought it to me and said, "Mom, I wish we had a shrinker."

Me, "A shrinker, what for?"

Lily, "So it could shrink me and Ammon and then we could pretend this was our boat and these were our paddles and we could play in the water all day."

Me, "Lily, that would be a fun idea." She is so creative!

Black Eye!

With walking comes a whole new world of excitement and unfortunately, pain. On Sunday Anna was wandering away from where we were sitting and Lily went to get her. Anna wasn't happy about being stopped and resisted Lily grabbing her and ended up falling face first into the legs of the hard metal chairs. Poor baby! She screamed so loud and we were the center of attention until I was able to get out of the chapel. I don't know who was more sad, Anna or Lily. Lily had the saddest look on her face. I think she thought she was in big trouble, poor girl. When I came back in I gave her a hug and told her I knew it was an accident. She was worried about Anna and her owie! Lily is an awesome big sister. She is so helpful and loves Anna tons. I have to remind her to give Anna some space and let her be! I love them both so much!

Saint George

We went to St. george Wednesday to visit some of our friends and Grandma Christy. We had lots of fun. It is nice that we can go and see them once in awile. We wish we would have had time to visit with all of our friends, but time was short. We will see you next time! I hope to come up again soon.

Thanks to Keri for a fun afternoon. We went swimming in the pool (Yeah!) and got to see the Doughtys and Emily and Shaylie. We watched Ammon's new bday movie, The Jungle Book 2 and had a yummy dinner, pancakes and scrammbled eggs. Adam doesn't really like breakfast for dinner so we don't ever do it at our house. It was a fun dinner. Lily and Mikaela had twinner hair. All the kids played all afternoon and had a blast! They did not want to leave. We miss having friends so close. Ammon and Lily said they wished we still lived there, I do too!

My mom was in St. George for a few hours for her work so we were able to go see her too. It was so nice to visit even though it was short! Thanks for seeing us Grandma, we love you! She had birthday presents for Ammon and Anna and of course a gift for Lily too. The kids were so happy!

The case of the dissappearing everything!

Do any of you feel like things are constantly dissappearing? I seem to never be able to find pens, combs, my small notepad, occassionally my keys, wallet and cell phone. Maybe there is some little theif who runs around hiding all the things I need? No, it's really just my lack of organizing things and putting them where they go when I am done. Why do I always think it will be easier to do it later, when in reality it makes everything harder? Do you struggle with this same problem? I will conquer it, day by day, if I make it a goal and work toward it consiously. Wouldn't it be great to always be able to find everything you needed in your home right when you needed it?! This is not something I currently enjoy, but I hope to! It seems like what I usually am saying and hear is "Do you know where the ? is?"

Anna is Walking!

Anna is walking all over the place. She is still wobbly but is getting better every day. It's a good thing she has a diaper and some chub on her bottom because she falls a lot. She is determined to conquer this awesome and fun new ability. When we go for walks, she loves having her turn to walk. She doesn't want the stroller or helping hands, she wants to do it all on her own! The first video is kind of long and Anna only walks the first half of it. The second video shows more walking and her silly little crawl that she will soon stop doing, so sad. It is so cute!

Lily's Socks

Last week while Lily was putting her socks on right before we left for church she started getting frustrated and said, "I don't like these socks, I wish it wasn't Sunday, I wish I were a fairy!" She cracks me up!

Anna is 11 months!

My little baby is not so little any more. She is saying so many new words and she is walking. Last week was a big week for her. She got her two top teeth and started walking. She is saying a new word almost everyday this week. Wednesday I took a lid off a pan and the steam came up and she said, "ot!" Now every time I give her food she asks if it is hot. Too cute! She seems to say go and wow also. Yesterday I was putting cans of food away in the closet and she kept trying to pull them off the shelf. I kept telling her "ouch," to let her know it could hurt her and then she started saying ouch too, well it sounds more like oush, but it is super cute. She usually tries to walk anyplace first and then if she falls she resorts to crawling. She has taken 12 steps and soon will be running! She is such a climber too. She climbed up on a little chair of Ammon's, onto the end table and over the arm of the couch and then sat back against the cushion with a very triumphant look, we moved the chair so she can't do it anymore. Her favorite is to climb up onto the dishwasher door, silly baby. Adam is least excited about that because the door is loose now, oops! She loves the stairs and gets to them any chance she can get. The funny thing is that she usually gives herself away. She gets so excited that she has to let me know she is climking up by sticking her head next to the railing and hollering at me. She is hilarious. When I head over to get her she takes off as fast as she can to try to conquer a few more before I take her away. She is so much fun! Ammon and Lily love her and are the best fan club ever. Every time she stands up or takes a few steps they are right there cheering her on with intense excitment. We all love her and are so excited for her birthday which I can't believe is now less than one month away!

Sunrise

This world is so beautiful and amazing. I saw the most gorgeous sunrise this morning on my run. We have an awesome view of all of Vegas from where we live. When I left my neighborhood I saw the sun just peeking up over the mountains in the east, it was a little cloudy and because of all the fires the sun was bright red! It was huge and so amazing. It was bright, but not so much as in the afternoon so that I was able to stare at it. It is so neat that something as simple as a sunrise can be so exciting. I wished I had my camera, by the time I made it home the sun was up and behind the clouds and reddish glow in the sky had disappeared. Maybe tomorrow.

The moral of my story...

So, the story of the mouse continues. Our garbage can was still reaking, so I peeked inside and saw a sack in the bottom. I got a long stick to move it, it was stuck to the bottom. After loosening it, I realized that it was the sack I put our poor little mouse in. How it got to the very bottom I don't know, but it did and there he has sat decomposing for a week! I can't even tell you how absolutely disgusting it is! So yesterday was garbage day, again, and I hope he is gone. I left the can out all day and Adam brought it in last night. I haven't been brave enough to peek inside, I don't want to smell it again, but I sure hope he has said good bye to our can forever! I need to clean our garbage can out now, not a job I am looking forward to. So the moral of my story: Next time you find a dead mouse in your pool listen to your kids and bury him! It will probably save you a lot of work and stinky smells, and your kids will feel happier about the whole thing too!

Say Cheese!

Trying to get pictures of the kids is not always easy. It is hard to get all three of them to look at the camera and smile all at the same time! I still think they are all cute pictures, even with frowny faces. I love catching the candid moments. Hope you enjoy!

There's a what in the pool?!

On Wednesday morning I sent Ammon outside to water my tomato plant in the backyard. He came running inside telling me I had to come out and see something fast! He was pretty intense about it. So I go out and what do I find laying in our little kiddie pool? A poor little mouse! So sad. The poor little guy must have climbed up exploring or maybe trying to get a drink, and that was the end of that. The kids were really sad about it. I didn't want to get it out right then because we needed to leave soon and I wanted to make sure we all ready to leave before I spent my time removing the mouse, cleaning, sanitizing... Well, Ammon came up and was trying to tell me something through the bathroom door while I was in the shower and of course I couldn't hear what he was saying so I just told him to wait and I'd be out in a minute. As soon as I came out of my room he told me very proudly that he and Lily had gotten the mouse out all by themselves! Yeah! Gross! You did what?! I wasn't as happy about their help as they were. I felt bad for making them feel so bad, but I was so worried about germs, diseases...you know. So I got outside and I asked them how they got the mouse out and Lily said she used her fork from her tea set. Yuck! Ammon said, "Mom, I laid him over there in the sun so he can dry out and then run away!" "Oh, sweetie, the mouse isn't going to run away," I said. "Why not?" he aked. So I had to explain about drowining, and dying and such and then Ammon said, "Oh, so he is going to go to heaven, but first he has to get stinky." "That's right!" I said trying not to laugh. The kids wanted me to bury him but I decided to just throw him in the garbage can. I couldn't get myself to take a picture of the poor dead thing so sorry I have no gruesome pictures to show of our hilarious story. So, that was Wednesday and garbage day is Thursday. I didn't think it would be a very big deal to have it in there for one day...Well, the garbage man didn't come until way late afternoon and our big black garbage can sat there roasting in the hot vegas sun all day with the stinky dead mouse inside and so now our garbage can reaks! So disgusting! Also, I had to drain the pool, scrub the pool, sanitize the pool, wash the patio, sanitize the patio, all the toys I thought would have come in contact with grems... It was quite an ordeal taking care of it all. Funny memory though.

Why am I Up?

I was just thinking about what I just wrote, I did not wake up this early to work on my blog. I was up with the baby and then I couldn't get back to sleep so I figured instead of laying there awake I could use that precious alone time while the kids are asleep and get something done! I wish I could live on less sleep. It would certainly be helpful if I had more time to get things done.

Blogging

Ok, so it is early morning and I have been up since 2:00 trying to figure out what I want my blog to look like. I don't know if what I picked is what I want, but it is good enough for now. Do you always loose your pictures when you change your template with pyzam? I know I can save it with blogger...trail and error, I'll get it. I need to get blogs figured out soon because I am supposed to be teaching others how to create one in two weeks! I am not as stressed out as before, but I still feel like I have so much to learn... I am having fun creating this though. There are so many different things you can put on a blog, once I get it all figured out it will go more quickly, I hope.